Parish Patience Solicitors, Immigration Law Section
www.parishpatience.com.au/immigration/

     
October 1998

Issue No 2

 
     
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In this edition we look at the immigration policies of the major political groupings before the Federal election on 3 October.

Inside this issue:

Previous issues

 

Immigration policies of the political parties in the election

The Federal government has called an early election for Saturday 3 October 1998. The following is a brief summary of the immigration and multicultural policies of the better-known political groupings and parties.

Liberal / National Party Coalition

The current government has released its policy in a document entitled Living in Harmony. It accuses the former ALP government of having "politicised" multicultural and immigration issues.

The Coalition promises to "continue its commitment to a settlement policy that: is based on needs identified through objective criteria; requires high levels of accountability; maintains support for the Migrant Resource Centres network; maintains the essential role that community organisations play in the provision of settlement services; maintains the current level of funding to settlement services in order to enable non-government agencies to better assist their members; provides non-government agencies with the opportunity for involvement in service delivery, and ensures government services are delivered around a set of principles that are planned and delivered with cultural diversity considerations in mind."

Elsewhere in this Update we look at some of the immigration program changes the current government has already put in place for shortly after the election.

Australian Labor Party (ALP)

The ALP policy is set out in a speech made by the Leader of the Opposition, Mr Kim Beazley, on 24 July 1998. It criticizes the current government for failing to keep promises made at the last election about launching an anti-racism campaign and generally for failing to respond adequately to the statements made by Pauline Hanson and her One Nation party.

The party's policy is based on four principles outlined by Mr Beazley: a belief in the role of citizenship; a commitment to opposing racism; a belief in supporting ethnic communities; and an emphasis on employment.

The Office of Multicultural Affairs is to be renamed Office of Citizenship and Multicultural Affairs and returned to the Prime Minister's Department where it was originally. The Office will be responsible for setting up an Australian Council on Citizenship.

Generally the ALP promises more attention to the needs of newly arrived migrants including more spending on English language teaching. They oppose the two-year waiting period for social security benefits.

The ALP believes that current intake numbers are "about right" but hopes to see a gradual increase in the future.

Australian Democrats

This party is present only in the Senate where it currently holds the "balance of power" together with some independent Senators.

The Democrats have issued an "issues pack" on Immigration and Multicultural Affairs. They support "a non-discriminatory immigration program which gives priority to refugees and family reunion applicants" and "a doubling of the current refugee quota". They also oppose the two-year waiting period for social security benefits and the mandatory detention policy for undocumented asylum seekers introduced by the former ALP government and kept in place by the current Coalition government.

The Democrat's policy of favouring social and humanitarian considerations in immigration policy sets them apart from the ALP and the Coalition. However, in previous statements they have indicated that they do not support large overall immigration intakes.

One Nation

This party favours a "zero net growth" immigration policy which would limit permanent arrivals to the same level as departures.

Various statements made by party members indicate that the party has a racially based view of immigration and multicultural affairs and the party leader is on record as saying she believes Australia is "being swamped by Asians".

Changes to parent visas - onshore and offshore

As many readers will be aware, from 1 November this year dramatic changes to parent and "aged dependent relative" visas come into effect.

Offshore parent subclass 103 is abolished and "aged dependent relatives" are removed from subclass 104. The parent subclass is replaced by new subclass 113 (called "Aged parent - migration"). An "aged parent" is one who would be old enough to apply for an age pension in Australia (65 for men, 60 or 61 for women).

Actually, one type of working age parent is left in -- the applicant must have a dependent child in Australia who is under 18 and is a settled Australian citizen, Australian PR or New Zealand citizen. Even then, the applicant has to be sponsored by a settled dependent child who has turned 18, or a close relative or guardian of the child who has not turned 18, or finally by a community organisation. The applicant must be outside Australia and the dependent child must be in Australia.

The requirement that the applicant be physical outside Australia at the time of lodgment applies to all parent visas from 1 November. Posting applications offshore while the applicant is here on a visitor or temporary visa will no longer be possible.

Offshore aged dependent relatives now have their own subclass, 114. The applicant must be outside Australia at the time of application.

Both new visas are subject to dramatically increased charges. While the first instalment of the application fee remains at $1,060.00, the second instalment (payable on approval) goes up to $5,000.00 per adult family member and $945.00 for each family member under 18. The refundable bond is raised to $4,000.00 for the principal and $2,000.00 for an adult family member. 

Onshore visa subclass 804 (Aged parent) disappears entirely. Applications lodged before 1 November will still have to be processed under the regulations in force at the time of lodgment, but the Minister has made it clear that such cases will be given lowest processing priority. It is not possible to say for certain how long applicants will have to wait of finalisation of their cases.

A new onshore subclass 819 (also called "Aged parent") comes into being. At first glance, it appears to allow aged parents who satisfy the balance of family test to remain as in the present subclass 804. However, on closer examination it appears that the application must be accompanied by satisfactory evidence that the applicant is either the holder of a subclass 410 (retirement) visa or has made a valid application for Family or General Residence visa before 1 November 1998 which hasn't yet had a primary decision. In effect, the only parents who can apply onshore will be those who have already lodged an application before 1 November and don't want to wait, possibly for a very long time, to get into the faster processing queue by lodging a fresh application (no filing fee is applicable) under the new visa class, subject to the higher bond and much higher second instalment fee (as for offshore visas, $5,000.00 per adult family member, and $945.00 for each family member under 18). The exception is for subclass 410 visa holders, providing they have had the retirement visa for 10 years before they apply for the permanent visa.

All reference to aged dependent relatives in subclass 806 is removed. Applications on foot before 1 November can still go ahead, but there is no option of moving to a higher processing category.

There are also changes to the assurance of support requirements specifying that the assurer must be generating taxable income of at least the amount specified as the "income free area" under point 1069-H28 of the Social Security Act" (for Family Allowance purposes).

Hot links

With each edition of Australian Immigration Law Update we will try to find some new or interesting sites that you might enjoy visiting. This month, you might like to try out some of these:
 

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Parish Patience Immigration
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SYDNEY NSW 2000
AUSTRALIA 

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